1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a type unit for a hand stamp or in a hand stamp, respectively, in particular for a self-inking stamp, comprising at least one printing type band which is placed over a drive wheel, said drive wheel being rotatably mounted in a bearing member and provided with an adjustment wheel, preferably being integrally formed therewith.
Furthermore, the invention relates to a drive wheel for such a type unit with at least one type band which, in its mounted position, is placed over the drive wheel, which drive wheel has a profiled wheel body and an adjustment wheel connected thereto, preferably integrally connected thereto.
2. The Prior Art
It has been known to equip self-inking stamps with type units which comprise one or more type bands for displaceable stamp types, these type bands being arranged in the type unit in loop-shape, partially looping over drive wheels which are connected to adjustment wheels so as to adjust the type bands in the type unit step-wise for moving the respective displaceable stamp type into its printing position. For example, such a self-inking stamp with such a type unit is known from EP 0 723 874 A. Usually, the loop-shaped type bands are also combined with stationary types in the type unit, and access to the drive wheels or to the adjustment wheels thereof, respectively, for adjusting the respective type band is only possible within a spatially limited region. Thus, it may happen that during displacement of the drive wheels, the fingers get in contact with the type bands that have been wetted with stamping ink from earlier actuations of the stamp, so that the fingers become soiled. To prevent this as far as possible, the diameters of the adjustment wheels can be made appropriately large which, however, undesirably increases the space demanded within the stamp housing additionally. Moreover, the adjustment wheels of the drive wheels usually must be thin so as to lose little space in the direction of the turning axle of such a stamp unit, apart from the fact that as a consequence of thicker adjustment wheels, the distance between the adjustable stamp types, as they are present in adjacent type bands, may become undesirably large for the respective imprint. As a result thereof—and also because the adjustment of the drive wheels, or of the type bands, respectively, must not be very smooth-running—the adjustment wheels cut relatively sharply into the fingertips during an adjustment, the more so, if the adjustment wheels are toothed or serrated on their circumference, as is common.
From AT 379 U1 it is already known to put a cover foil over the type bands as protection against soling of the fingers when displacing the adjustment wheels; this cover foil, which has slots for the passage of the adjustment wheels, is inserted in slots of a cross-member of the base for fixing the former, retention of said cover foil, however, being insufficient.
In DE 203 09 613 U1, furthermore, a type unit of the initially indicated type is shown, wherein a cover is provided which has triangular notches on the front sides, into which notches axially inwardly oriented snap-in projections, provided on the legs of a bearing member adjacent the base thereof, snap when snapping the cover onto said bearing member of the type unit. What is disadvantageous here is i.a. that snapping on of the cover and a possible later removal of the cover require quite an effort since an elastic deformation of the co-operating snap-in elements is possible to a limited extent only, wherein it may also easily happen that wall parts of the front side of the hood-shaped cover break off.